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MOOSE JAW — The ongoing theft of parking meter heads and the money in them is forcing city hall to expand existing pay-for-parking digital technology while searching for new payment methods.
The city has 815 turn-style street-side meters, 23 HotSpot app metered stalls and 183 parking lot metered stalls, and so far this year, the municipality has recorded 172 incidents of theft and vandalism, a city council report presented during the June 23 regular meeting said.
In comparison, in 2024, the city recorded 47 missing metered posts, which represented 88 metered stalls, and replaced some of them.
The operations department had budgeted $597,040 in parking revenue this year, but it likely won’t collect that amount because of the vandalism, the report noted.
While the operations department and city manager’s office continue to work with the Moose Jaw Police Service, “it has become evident” that the current meter infrastructure is “no longer adequate under these circumstances,” the document said.
So, the department drafted a request for proposal (RFP) to hire a consultant, with the project scope to include engaging stakeholders, selecting technology, implementing the technology and decommissioning the existing equipment.
Meanwhile, throughout 2024 and 2025, the department worked with KGS Group to complete a mobile parking app assessment, which included surveys of parking app vendors, feedback from municipalities across Western Canada, revenue assessments and implementation options, the report added.
During the meeting, administration asked council for $200,000 to hire a consultant to pursue the renewal initiative, with the money to come from the capital expenditure fund reserve.
However, council said no and voted 6-1 to have administration temporarily expand the digital HotSpot parking app system to areas where replacing the parking meter heads is unfeasible, until a new solution can be found.
Coun. Heather Eby was opposed.
Administration’s comments
The city recorded more than 170 incidents of vandalism and theft of metered heads from Jan. 1 to May 31, which represents 20 per cent of inventory, said Bevan Harlton, director of operations.
However, that number has jumped to around 240 missing heads in June — and the month isn’t over yet, he noted. Also, vandals have ripped out every pole on one side of a block, while city crews have found damaged meter heads in back alleys.
“And the ability to maintain that infrastructure is gone,” he remarked. “There (are) no sets of maintenance programs I can offer to council that will maintain that infrastructure.”
Administration planned to pursue the parking app renewal project in 2026, but the “rampant theft and vandalism” has forced the city to move forward quickly on finding new technology, Harlton said.
Harlton noted that while different parking-related technologies are available, he was concerned about forcing “large swaths” of the population to adopt them. He added that there was no engagement process when the city first adopted the HotSpot system, especially with city staff who deal with parking issues.
Root cause of vandalism
Coun. Jamey Logan was opposed to spending the money since the proposed study equated to $245 per meter. He pointed out that KGS Group had already completed a parking study and wanted to review that first.
He then asked the Moose Jaw Police Service to comment on the root cause of the vandalism.
Staff Sgt. Trisha Seman replied that the agency didn’t know what the root cause was. However, the police service knew it was “a crime of opportunity” since most damage happened downtown at night. Moreover, the thieves were likely stealing the money because they were desperate for it.
“The benefit of the amount of change they’re getting out of it, unfortunately, the expense of the meters outweighs probably how much they’re getting,” she said, adding the police are unable to monitor all the meters and can only respond afterward.
Follow other cities
Coun. Patrick Boyle said that when he travels to other cities, they have removed their physical meters and use parking apps or pay-by-phone technology. Moreover, some use technology that recognizes motorists’ licence plates.
Continuing, Boyle said Moose Jaw should look to Regina or Saskatoon for parking-related solutions. He also thought administration should prioritize this issue because of the loss in revenue.
“What we’re talking about is taking out all the parking meters … . Eventually that’s where we’re headed,” he said, adding that it’s fun for tourists to use the turn-style meters since they’re a “novelty.”
Coun. Dawn Luhning agreed with Boyle, saying when she visited Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., last year, she paid for parking by inputting her licence plate number into an app she downloaded. Moreover, there was no other physical infrastructure aside from signs with information about the app.
Meanwhile, she didn’t think Moose Jaw needed to “reinvent the wheel” and pay a consultant $200,000. Instead, she thought they should look to the Saskatchewan or Alberta municipality associations for parking resources.
“Isn’t this something our IT department should be doing?” she wondered, adding that implementing a new solution will likely cost additional money.
Replacing the meters
Coun. Chris Warren said the city has collected roughly $209,000 year-to-date in parking revenues, while the projected budget is $597,000. In comparison, last year the city collected $593,000 on a projected budget of $577,000.
The city’s budget policy says the municipality should focus on completing one study at a time so city staff aren’t overstretched, but administration is already working on three other projects, Warren noted. Since this parking proposal wasn’t in the 2025 budget, he was concerned that it might cause capacity issues or delay the completion of other projects.
Meanwhile, considering the city replaced parking meter poles last year, he wondered how many heads the city could replace this year. He also wondered if city hall could use the HotSpot app at locations with missing metered heads.
City manager Maryse Carmichael replied that administration has stopped repairing the heads because directors realized “it was not worth it.” They thought they could replace the infrastructure in 2024, but determined they needed a “totally different solution” than physical meters.
She agreed that this proposed project would be extra work, but the funding would allow administration to hire a consultant to do it. She added that she didn’t think the city would hit its budgeted parking revenues this year since they were already $89,000 below estimates.
Harlton said his department has been having conversations about extending the HotSpot subscription to other, non-metered locations. However, he thought it best that council discuss that before administration did anything.
“I don’t know if we can do it piecemeal, location by location … ,” he added.
Throwing away money
Coun. Heather Eby said the city should no longer repair the broken meters because it’s similar to “throwing candy out during a parade, like, why would we do that? So I don’t think we should throw good money after bad.”
Continuing, she said some councillors may worry about hiring a consultant. However, she pointed out that Harlton lacks a project manager, while his department cannot handle it.
Eby added that deferring this issue to 2026 would only cause more complaints about broken meters and continued losses in revenue.
The next regular council meeting is Monday, July 14.
